It’s the time for wrapping up gifts
Shirani
Shirani Fairbanks has made it her life’s goal to encourage the imaginative spirit. She’s the lady behind the innovative cards, gift wrappers and notebooks you may have picked up at your favourite store.
Trickledown Pvt Ltd, a well known name in handmade stationery and gift items arena celebrated their 21st anniversary in July. Established by Shirani and her ex-husband in 1993, it has become a successful business of handmade recycled paper products which are now available in the local market and even exported to the UK.
Trickledown’s range includes an assortment of wrapping paper, gift boxes, notebooks, photo albums, post cards, home ware, notepads, children’s toys and greeting and gift cards to name a few which are all distinctive in design. A special array of seasonal specials, using Christmas colour themes as well as wrapping papers inlaid with silver and gold patterns have been created for the season.
Her products are available at Odel, Paradise Road, Hyde Park Arpico, Cool Planet as well as the Damro-Diligenz store in Dehiwala. Shirani also caters to the wedding market, the tourism and hotel industry through products such as menu covers and room stationary as well as corporate customers.
“We have worked towards diversifying our product range. We have villagers providing us with unfinished basic products which later we can customise according to our buyers’ specifications,” Shirani says. Being elected the president of the Rotary Club of Capital City, she is hoping to launch a recycling plant or a paper product factory in the north east as well with the aim of providing job opportunities to women of the area.
Shirani has workshops in two locations in Maradana and Rajagiriya, with a team of close to 50, mainly women in the manual arrangement process with the men mostly handling machinery.
Women at work: Turning out colourful boxes at one of the workshops. Pix by Indika Handuwala
Her newest product line called ‘Hobby Craft’ aimed at all creative people has been very successful she says. “I wanted to encourage people, especially the young ones to spend time creating their own cards. Not only does this add a personal touch but it also makes you feel satisfied with your own handiwork. We have put out to the market little craft accessories like glitter, ribbon flowers, sequins, petals, buttons etc that can be used in making your greeting card to your own design. This is the first time this has been attempted in Sri Lanka,” she says, confident of its potential.
The biggest challenge she’s facing is the influx of low quality but cheaper imported products. “The beginning of this company was just trial and error. We took over a recycling plant and invested in it. It will be a great encouragement for local producers if customers ask for and buy local products. Though the cost maybe a little higher, it’s because of the labour and you can be assured that it’s high quality and long lasting.”
Trickledown Pvt Ltd is situated at No. 01, Zelaski Avenue, Colombo 10. They can be contacted on telephone 0112667793 or e-mail at trickledown@eureka.lk. Their Facebook page is ‘Trickledown Sri Lanka’.